22 WORLD-POWER AND EVOLUTION 



(H) Tuberculosis 20 



Respiratory diseases .... 6 



26 



Grand total 338 



Even if we admit that most of those in groups A and B are not 

 seriously incapacitated for the work of life, there remain 165 

 out of every thousand who have some grave physical or mental 

 defect. This means that in the very prime of life one in every 

 six of the young men in the United States is terribly handicapped, 

 and is thus handicapping his home and his country. 



Other countries are almost equally afflicted. In Germany, 

 before the Great War, over 20 per cent of the school children 

 were anaemic, in part from malnutrition, and in part from other 

 disorders. In England conditions are not much better. In Italy 

 they are worse. It is impossible to obtain exact figures, but ordi- 

 nary observation is enough to indicate that in countries like 

 Turkey, Persia, and China, a large part of the children are 

 anaemic. Even in our own country the proportion rises as high 

 as 50 or 60 per cent in parts of the southern states. Taken as 

 a whole the situation is exceedingly grave. Its seriousness gives 

 good ground for the suspicion that a large share of the moral, 

 social, and political evil in the world has its root in unfavorable 

 conditions of health. On the side of religion, education, philan- 

 thropy, and government, that is, in those conditions which depend 

 primarily upon training, the advanced nations of the world have 

 not failed so badly as many people suppose. There have indeed 

 been sad failures, but have not these generally been due to the 

 poor quality of the material that has been trained? That is what 

 we most need at present — better human material. In the course 

 of many generations the eugenists will greatly improve the 

 hereditary quality of the material, but meanwhile proper attention 

 to health will do wonders. 



In this book we do not propose to study health from the stand- 



